Pages

Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Happy Little Stampers October Christmas Challenge Reminder

Hi everyone. I am back again with my second post as Guest Designer for the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge and this is for the mid month reminder. I decided that as I won the July challenge with a watercolour type card I would do something along the same lines.

For this card I have used a stamp from Chocolate Baroque which I have had for a couple of years but which unfortunately isn't available any more, but I like the shape of the flower and it is also a nice size.

I stamped it using Festive Berries Distress Ink on to a piece of watercolour paper. I stamped it three times and had to have two masks as the flowers form a tight group. I then pulled the ink in to the petals from the edge with a brush and some water just to take the whiteness off. Next I worked on one petal at a time building up the colour with some more of the red and then whilst still wet I introduced some Seedless Preserves DI to add some shading. I waited for the petals to dry or speeded the process a bit with my heat gun until I had been right round the flowers. I then added some Mustard Seed DI with a little of the red to take off the harshness of the yellow and to shade the centres a bit. I did go round and add more colour where I thought it needed it, but it is easy to overwork it so you have to try to judge when enough is enough.

I continued with the background making sure the flowers were dry first. I used some Bundled Sage DI to start with by wetting the background as I went along, and when this was dry added Pine Needles DI round the flowers. As even with watercolour paper the water makes it buckle a bit I stuck it under a heavy book overnight which did a good job of flattening it. On looking at it the next day I thought the background colour seemed a bit flat so decided to try and lift the colour by adding a little Peacock Feathers DI and this worked better I thought.

To finish it I cut the piece down and mounted it on to some gold mirri card and then mounted this on to my white square card. I used a spare piece of card coloured to match the background and cut using one of the smaller dies from a Spellbinders set Floral Ovals and stamped the sentiment using Versamark and WOW Gold Embossing Powder. When I had added this I decided to further enhance the background and sentiment with some stars and dots cut from a Memory Box die Snowflake Corner.

I have had so much fun and I would like to thank everyone over at HLS for making me so welcome. They are all very talented so do go and take a look at their beautiful work and there is still plenty of time to enter this month's challenge. You will find the details HERE.

13 comments:

Wow!! Beautiful watercolouring of your poinsettias, Pat. Amazing job with the colours and shading to give your poinsettias lots of depth. Thanks so much for being our Guest Designer this month ... you have been great!!! xx

WOW, Pat, what great watercolouring!!!! It must have taken you some time to do it, but it was well worth all the effort!!! Your poinsettias really look great and the beautiful bg have them pop wonderfully!!!! What a lovely card!!!!Have a great day!!!Hugz

I am pretty rubbish with watercolor, so this is most impressive. It's a lovely stamp and your coloring & shading are just beautiful. Brilliant idea to add in the different DI shades to get that shadow on the poinsettia leaves - it's very effective. Also liked the way you've done the background, with the bluer tones up close to the petals. Wonderful job on a stunning card! You've done splendidly as the GD at HLS Christmas. TFS & Big hugs.

Thank you for looking at my blog today, your comments are greatly appreciated.

In line with new Data Protection legislation (GDPR) by commenting you do so in the knowledge that your name & comment are visible to all who visit this blog and thereby consent to the use of that personal information for that specific purpose.

Translate

About Me

Since I was young I have always been interested in things creative and have dabbled in knitting, crochet, needlecrafts and oil and watercolour painting. About seven or eight years ago I made some cross stitch cards and so began my love of card making. I mainly make cards for family and friends but I would like to take it a step further and enter some of the many challenges there are out there now. I hope you enjoy following my journey and seeing the results of my efforts, and if you use any of my ideas please link back to here.

Data Protection and Privacy Policy

By becoming a follower of this blog you do so in the knowledge that your photo, link to your profile and name are visible to all those that visit here. You can of course unfollow, but I sincerely hope you won't.